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created by Joan Littlewood, the Theatre Workshop & Charles Chilton, directed by Albert Schultz

Soulpepper Theatre Company, Young Centre, Toronto

March 17-April 10, 2010

In 2008 the names of all 68,000 Canadian killed in World War I were projected on the National War Memorial in Ottawa to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the end of war.  Albert Schultz reminds us of that event through similar projections at the end of Oh What a Lovely War, except that the circumstances are completely different.  Is it actually possible to honour the dead of World War I at the end of a play that for two hours has relentlessly rammed home the pointlessness of their sacrifice?

Schultz’s difficulty in directing Lovely War is his fatal vacillation between satire and nostalgia.  Conceived by Joan Littlewood and her Theatre Workshop in 1963, Lovely War is vintage anti-war agitprop.  It is meant to be savage and unsentimental, yet very little of this comes through in this Soulpepper production.  The fact that the show is in the form of a music hall entertainment, complete with seedy emcee (Michael Hanrahan), and that the rest of the 15-member cast are dressed as clowns should immediately convey Littlewood’s uncompromising view.  The show is made up of more than 30 songs of the period--both famous (“It’s a Long Way to Tipperary”) and obscure (“Hush Here Comes a Whizzbang’).  As the comedic scenes and cheery songs play out below, projections above tally how many thousands men were lost at each battle and how little, if any, ground they gained.  In all there were 16 million deaths and 21 million wounded.  As we, of course, know this “War to End All Wars” did nothing of the kind.

Hanrahan gradually morphs from jolly emcee to an intractable Field Marshall Douglas Haig, feverishly calculating how many lives he can afford to lose and still win before the Americans join the war.  Oliver Dennis is hilarious throughout, especially as a British general who imperiously foregoes use of a French translator he desperately needs.  Among the younger actors Gregory Prest and Mike Ross distinguish themselves in dozens of roles.  The group songs come off well.  The individual songs do not both because the singers adopt too arch a style and because the sound is not balanced between the mic and the live instruments played by the cast.  Too often actors seem to smile at themselves in their roles which deadens the satire.  Were it effective, we should cringe at the portrayal of politicians, diplomats, military brass and war profiteers whose egotism and vested interests blind them to the toll of human lives their “war game” exacts.  Under Schultz we mostly laugh it off and enjoy the old songs.  

©Christopher Hoile

Note: A version of this review appeared in Eye Weekly 2010-03-18.

Photo: Ryan Field, Jason Patrick Rothery, Ins Choi, Doug Price, Brendan Wall, Mike Ross and Gregory Prest. ©Cylla von Tiedemann.